Friday, March 14, 2008

Big Iron on his Hip......

I am a bit of a gun crank. I buy, sell and swap weapons quite a bit. I was bemused recently after making a deal with someone on one of the civil war boards that I belong to. Let me share the details with you.

A few weeks ago, I saw a person who was offering a "Army" Colt with a full flap holster for $150.00. Well it was advertised as only been fired once and carried out once, so it sounded like it was in good shape. Since this kind of pistol retails for over $250.00 I thought it sounded like it was a pretty good deal. So I contacted the seller. I was the first to get in so he told me he would sell it to me. This pistol (a cap and ball revolver) would fit in well with the naval gear I am collecting so I was tickled to death.

Well, I got a package in the mail and low and behold, it was the pistol. However, it was NOT a 1860 Army. Stamped on the barrel was 36 caliber. (Army pistols were 44) I studied the situation a bit and discovered that this pistol is a model being sold as a 1861 Navy revolver (A slicked up 1851 model) It DOES look like a 1860 model but much slimmer and with a rounded barrel. It is in good shape and is very nice looking. Now here is the interesting thing. When I looked it over, it was loaded. Not with live rounds mind you. With blank loads. It had 5 chambers loaded with black powder topped with a corn meal/crisco mixture and one empty chamber. I guess this guy believed in truth in advertising. It HAD only been fired once, then packed up and shipped up to me without cleaning or unloading. How he had the guts to send it through the U.S. Mail loaded, in this day and time, I will never know.

Now I need to clean it and get it ready to serve it's new owner.

3 comments:

Andrew Duppstadt said...

What a dumbass! Were the cylinders capped too? This is the kind of story that makes people like me (read: state weapons safety officer) cringe. It amazes me that some people are this dense. Things that make you go hmmm (or in this case, WTF!?)

Michael W. said...

Hi Andrew,

Nope, the weapon wasn't capped. You would have heard me scream all the way down yonder if it had been. I stripped her down and it's got a little surface rust on the breach of the barrel, but the bore doesn't seem to have any pitting.

Strangely enough, this guy is a "progressive sutler". I was always taught that the very first thing a person does is take care of his weapons. I guess they missed that part in the progressive textbook. GRIN

Andrew Duppstadt said...

Maybe he decided it was "progressive" to send you a weapon that was ready to fire upon arrival. GRIN